This song was performed using Tenori-On as a MIDI controller and live sequencer driving racks for synths hosted in Ableton Live. The visuals are generated on-the-fly using live camera input as the only source with real-time visual FX.

If you enjoy the track and want to stream the album swing by Bandcamp. That's a great place to buy the album as well as you can buy high-rez versions of the music there and the album download includes a 10 page digital booklet. The album is also available on most major outlets including , iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby.

Last Friday was such a great day! I not only released my album Fear Cannot Save Us, but Darwin Grosse stopped by to interview me for his podcast Art + Music + Technology. I’m such a huge fan of the podcast so it was an incredible honor to be interviewed.

A quick update on the album. While Bandcamp is a great place to get the album (best value + you get a 10 page digital booklet), I’ve also made it available on iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby. It’s also on most other services – just search for “Mark Mosher”.

If your enjoying the album and want to recommend it to your friends, I’ve setup an easy to remember URL which points to bandcamp – www.FearCannotSaveUs.com.

I’m very happy to announce my new album Fear Cannot Save Us is now available on Bandcamp. It will be available on other outlets soon, but bandcamp edition is the best value and also contains a 10 page digital booklet with liner notes and photos.

This is album #3 in a series of alien invasion concept albums containing original cinematic electronica, dark ambient, and experimental tracks. This third album, released in 2014, tells the story of the transformation of a human to an alien hybrid being. The album takes you through our hero’s journey as they rapidly coevolve and become self-aware and aware of their mission for revolution. Assuming evolution does not imply direction, could the change benefit mankind?

On another level this album is also allegorical. It’s about tolerance for people who seem different and strange to us. It’s also about people accepting change in themselves. On a third level, the album and the series are a nod to my love for classic Sci-fi films

The albums in this series are orchestrated with classic and contemporary synth sounds and loaded with sound design “ear candy” for synth and Sci-fi fans looking for a soundtrack experience for an epic movie yet to be filmed. If you listen to the tracks in album order, the story unfolds, and the titles of the songs give away the basic plot of each scene, but it’s left up to you - the listener - to fill in the story details. Each song was written to stand on its own as well. The dynamic arrangements and production will reward you for listening with high-quality headphones, stereo systems, or home theater systems.

Bringing this album to life is the culmination of over three years of work. This work included going deep and studying the sound design possibilities of a small number of monster digital synthesizers such as Absynth, Zebra, and ElectraX, as well as circuit-modelled analog synthesizers such as ACE and Saurus. To give the album an organic feel and sense of place, I manipulated my field recordings using Ableton Sampler. I also worked to find ways to “see through the eyes” of great guitarists, not to emulate guitar tone per se, but to instead apply concepts like non-linear distortion and wave shaping within feedback circuits to add more dynamics, emotion and expression to my sounds and performances. I hope you enjoy the sonic detail and emotion that will emerge and evolve with multiple listens.

Make sure you check out the other entries in the series here markmosher.bandcamp.com. Album #1 - “Reboot” tells the tale of the original alien invasion from the human point of view. Album #2 – “I Hear Your Signals” – tells the same story but from the alien point of view with inverted emotional curves. Thanks Many thanks to my wife and family, friends, fellow independent artists who have helped and inspired me (including the Electro-Music, Boulder Synthesizer Meetup, and Ableton User Group communities) , the software designers and instrument builders that make the tools I use every day, fellow bloggers and listeners who have supported my art throughout the years. Here’s to the next sonic journey and making the world a better place through art.

Ready to scare the crap out your neighbors this Halloween? Need some more music for your party? Last year I released an album for Halloween called NO GHOSTS. JUST FEAR. It has 5 original dark ambient horror soundscapes. It was mastered by the wonderful Gannon Kashiwa and I encourage you to download it as the 128-bit stream doesn't do the pieces justice. So grab it and blast out into the neighborhood!!! There is sub-woofer food in here so make your house rumble!!!

The video was shot at my sound check by fellow performer and Electric Trombone player Darren Kramer using GoPro. The audio is from GoPro camera.

At this show I’m using Abeton Live to do for live sequenced playback. For live play, For this song called “Dark Signals” (from my second album I HEAR YOUR SIGNALS) I’m using a my Remote SL MKII Keyboard along with Maschine (custom template in made with Control Editor) to play instruments in Live racks. As you'll see in the video I'm using pressure from the pads to modulate this synths.

AudioCubes are receiving light commands via MIDI CCs from Ableton Live. I
never use on-board sounds in Tenori-On and instead use it as a
controller and pump MIDI into synths hosted in Ableton Live.

The visuals are based on live camera input processed in Resolume. The Resolume system receives controller and automation from the Ableton rig via MIDI. I’m using the house projector to display my visuals on a screen that’s the width the of the stage!

It’s a little hard to tell from this video because audio is from GoPro, but the sound at this show was amazing thanks to Gannon Kashiwa who owns and operates GK:SOUND at the TARDIS in Denver. I’m working on a 3 camera edit from footage from the actually show performance which will have audio from the board – so stay tuned.

I’m happy to announce the release of my new album No Ghosts. Just Fear. It’s an EP with five original horror soundscapes. The album is only available as an album download from Bandcamp.com as they supports the high-resolution formats required for proper listening :^)

Go for the High-Rez Download :^) The dark ambient sounds and music within these arrangements was created and performed on various virtual instruments (see notes below). In some cases original audio recordings were used as sources then re-shaped with granular synthesis to turn these recordings into playable expressive instruments with huge sonic range and motion.

The album was mastered by the wonderful Gannon Kashiwa who is the Director of Digital Media at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science - so you'll hear the incredible sonic range and detail of these pieces if you go for the downloads. The streaming versions just don’t do the tracks justice.

The Liner notes pasted in below with the addition of “Synths Used” for you Modulate This! readers. Note tracks 2-4 each use a single synth and single deep performance preset programmed from INIT.

I hope hearing these tracks inspires you to dig deeper into programming from INIT with a smaller number of synths in your rig. Going deep allows you to create expressive patches and presets with performance in mind and transcend these synths making them true instruments.

I’ll also add that the entire album was produced and mixed with Ableton Live. Gannon Mastered in Pro Tools.

Thanks for your support and If you enjoy the album please pass it on. Happy Halloween!

ABOUT THE ALBUMThis album contains five original instrumental horror soundscapes by Boulder-based synthesist and composer Mark Mosher. Listen in the dark on a great sound system with a sub-woofer or with good headphones (not ear buds) and let your imagination run wild! Then remember, it’s all in your head :^)

1 Primeval Amygdala kicks in as you enter the fear zone. Remember, it's all in your head!

I use hand crafted synthetic sounds (subtractive and additive synthesis) to create strange tones, textures. and rhythms to build tension. Fast note-runs, and radical tempo changes will creep you out. This piece was performed using Percussa AudioCubes. Note I released this as a single in 2011. Even if you've heard it before I recommend you buy the album to get this new high-resolution remix. For this remix I reprogrammed some of the effects, remixed the track a bit, and then re-rendered with highest quality synth settings. Plus this track and all others were mastered by Gannon Kashiwa and it sounds simply incredible!

Synths Used: Waldorf Largo, 4 Instances of Image-Line Harmless. I also used Percussa Improvisor with original sequences controlled from AudioCubes which got fed into Live to drive the virtual synths. Further editing and production was done in Live.

2 Alone in the Dark When you are alone in the dark your mind will play tricks.

Over the last year I've been spending time listening to the tone. harmonics, overtones, and distortion created by expressive electric guitar greats like David Gilmour. "Alone in the Dark" is my exploration of expressive manipulation of harmonics and distortion with a single synthesizer patch custom programmed. As a result you'll hear me go beyond the sonic range of guitars into the sub-harmonic realm.

Synths Used: Waldorf Largo

3 Fight or Flight Your brain is on overload as you run for your life through a dark building searching for the exit.

I broke a long complex original audio recording into small chunks called "grains" with a custom patch in a virtual instrument called Absynth. My patch allows me to traverse, manipulate and perform with this massive sample as if it's an expressive instrument with a very unique harmonic palette.

4 Under the Spider’s Web There is a dim golden light ahead in the dark. Between you and the light, there is a spider and of course a large web blocking your path. Was that something crawling down the back of your neck?

Like the last track, this is custom granular synth performance.

Synths Used: Native Instruments Absynth 5, Rob Papen Predator FX

5 Orbiting Miranda Inspired by the film Serenity.

I used a variety of custom programmed virtual synths and effects to create this lush but dark ambient piece. Note I released this as a single in 2011. Even if you've heard it before I recommend you buy the album to get this new high-resolution remix re-mastered by Gannon Kashiwa.